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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Sex and drugs and rock and roll

As I am on holiday (this posting comes to you from Enterprise House, Bishop's Castle) I shall let other bloggers write for me.

Sex

Stephen Tall complains that Lembit Opik's love life gets more publicity than a scandal he has uncovered in his role as Lib Dem shadow housing minister.

That is the frustrating thing about Lembit. Deep down - very deep down - you suspect there is a serious politician trying to get out.

Drugs

Last month some of us were rather disconcerted to see that a Lib Dem councillor (Jayne McCoy) and a Lib Dem MP (Tom Brake) had taken part in a demonstration outside a shop in Wallington that sells bongs and other drug-related paraphernalia. Bernard Salmon wrote about it at the time.

As I would have flagged up at the time if I had been less busy, Tom Brake has taken this campaign further. Last Wednesday he brought in a ten minute Commons bill to ban the sale of cannabis seeds. You can find text of his speech, and of the speech opposing it by Labour MP Paul Flynn, in Hansard.

Gareth Aubrey, at Long Despairing Young Something (perhaps is he is a long despairing young something?) has written on the conflict between this position and the party policy Tom is meant to be promoting as a shadow home office minister.

Rock and Roll

Seeing as I am on holiday, try the Spencer Davis Group with Somebody Help Me. It's a pretty ordinary song for a number one hit, but the young Steve Winwood makes it sound like a Motown classic when he comes in.